Building Relationships in DevRel

Part 2: Relationships with our communities

Continuing my series this year on DevRel relationships, I am proud to highlight members of our incredible Community team at MongoDB. Building relationships with our community is a pillar of Developer Relations. Regardless of the size of your company or program, there are developers all over who count themselves among a group of users. At any stage of a company or program, this group of users is often interested in contributing, supporting each other, and being part of something special.

A talented, engaging, and inclusive Community team can help bring out the best in a group of developers who are interested in and/or are actively using a platform. Most importantly, the relationships they build between company and community, and within the community, can endure and last throughout our careers.

As I approach my first full year at MongoDB, I’ve seen our developer community grow through impressive user group expansion and a community advocate program, helping activity in our forums, and developers taking part in our enablement programs grow. I’ve also had the pleasure of seeing our Community team, built around a core of dedicated managers and engineers, continue creating quality relationships with millions of developers.

Our Community team has been in action at several of our .local events during its World tour this year. At one of our bigger events in New York City this year, three Community team members were there greeting existing community members and welcoming new developers. This month, I’m thrilled to feature insights from Veronica Cooley-Perry, Harshit Mehta, and Dave Nielsen.

Veronica leads our Community Advocacy Program, supporting leading contributors in our community to publish their own content and resources, and support others. She considers her role a connection point between the organization and the amazing community members who are champions for our products and brand. Veronica is dedicated to “helping create that connection and providing the community with opportunities to more deeply engage with our organization, learn more about our products, and showcase their talent to a global audience.”

Harshit Mehta manages our MongoDB User Group (MUG) program, where community members, our own Advocates, and others meet monthly all over the world to share topics and discussions around our platform. He sees his role as a facilitator of collaboration and knowledge-sharing among our community. Harshit’s mission is “to support our passionate User Group Leaders with the necessary resources to build their communities, facilitate connections among members, organize engaging events, and provide opportunities for interactions.”

Dave Nielsen, whom I’ve known for over 15 years and am proud to call a longtime friend, joined in May to lead our Community team. We first worked together seven years ago building a DevRel program around AI and machine learning at Intel. Dave is the founder of an unconference community called CloudCamp and is a DevRel legend. Like me, Dave has run a range of DevRel programs, and his mission, in his words, is “to help our community members help each other.” Dave added, “We do this by creating programs that build and strengthen relationships between our community members. Sometimes, we act as a bridge between the community and internal teams, ensuring that the needs of the community are heard and addressed back in our programs, products, and services.”

Community Health Check

One of the many reasons I joined MongoDB was the positive sentiment I found looking at the active developer community. As I talked to several former colleagues, I sensed developers seemed to have an exceptional love for this platform and its programs. Community can usually serve as a reliable window into the general health of a developer program.?

As a developer, there are ways to see that it’s working and the relationship between team and developers is healthy. According to Harshit, “Great relationships within a developer community can be seen when communities freely exchange ideas and assist each other in problem-solving.” This can be visible in active user groups and in community forums where, Harshit adds, “you can see developers showing genuine interest in each other's growth.”

A successful community program also fosters “collaboration over shared interests.” Veronica highlighted an example where “two Champions identified a need and created this MongoDB learning map last year.” Seeing developers lean in and create content to enable and inspire others is huge.?

Solid DevRel programs balance outreach with enablement. With a more technical-minded community team, the effort should effectively extend into partnerships and projects. Dave notes that “great relationships often lead to great outcomes. This is especially true in open source, when one developer solves a problem, shares their code, and others benefit.”

Community Values and Building Together

At a recent DevRel offsite, Dave keyed on something I thought really spoke to the uniqueness of our Community program. Part of the goal to facilitate a strong sense of community among developers is extending the company’s values to support inclusivity and empower one another.?

Harshit feels “an inclusive community is where every individual feels valued and a strong sense of belonging.” When inviting and appointing user group leads, Harshit aims to create a sense of ownership and responsibility. He looks for characteristics that include “giving back, fostering a culture of continuous learning, growing together, and offering unwavering support to one another.”

As Veronica builds our Community Advocacy Program, she’s looking for “different backgrounds, opinions, and thoughts,” which she says “aren’t just acknowledged–they’re celebrated and actively sought out.”

For Dave and his team, a key part of their relationship with the community is literally including them in decisions about the program. “As you're building your community programs, ask members what they think it should look like,” Dave says. “This can help you create something special that uniquely fits your community’s needs and interests. Plus, involving your community in decisions can lead them to understand how they can get more involved.”

Improving as You Grow

Many DevRel programs are ongoing efforts. While target metrics and investment can be set for goals like yearly growth, communities strong in relationships must evolve and improve to continue bringing value to developers and encourage involvement.?

So how do you ensure developers continue to see improvement and feel the connection to you as you grow? Veronica says a key to the Community Advocacy Program’s success is “spending a lot of time learning about the members and their interests.” She also adds, “Your community is going to expect you to be engaged with everything that is happening. It’s important to celebrate helpful posts as it is recognizing huge milestones.”

Harshit cautions, “If community members feel ignored or that their opinions don't matter, it is a clear sign of a strained relationship.” His solution is to facilitate “constant feedback and retrospectives with the community,” noting these “are the sources of understanding for us to see if the relationships are working well.”?

Reflecting on his experience with other programs and what he sees so promising about the MongoDB community, Dave says active dialogue is key. “Developer communities are always changing, even when you can’t see it.” He adds, “Open, two-way communication with your community is the most effective way to see the bumps, or even cliffs, ahead.”

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At MongoDB's local event in NYC, Veronica and Harshit presented an overview of the program and invited all developers to get involved. They revealed that our community has grown past seven million developers. Proudly celebrating members and leaders by name and city, it says a lot that they highlight so many direct connections with the community. It’s clear the size of the program is nothing compared to the relationships they maintain.

I want to thank Veronica, Harshit, and Dave for representing our amazing Community team and sharing their insights for this article.?

If you’re interested in reading more, Part 1 of Building Relationships in DevRel: Relationships with Colleagues featured insights from my colleague, Rita Rodrigues. My prior three posts in this series have covered Finding and Measuring Inspiration in Developer Relations, Five Tools of Developer Advocacy, and Great DevRel Participation at a Conference, as a Sponsor.